RJUSHL

It’s brutal but they had to start somewhere and at least make a team. It doesn’t have the depth of even most AA teams.

Rehashed a million times on here. Arguments both ways. If you’re a mixed team you exclude yourself from the best tournaments. If you’re a mixed team you will start to lose your best players. Those are just facts. Maybe mixed teams are better for development? There are arguments there, but the demand for mixed teams is decreasing every year. It’s just the way it is.

Preds 09 AAA tryouts finished last night and they've already sent selections to their core. Deferring the rest to the 08 AAA tryouts tomorrow. Supposedly some additional players will make the 09 AAA team and a few that don't make that team will be placed on the 08 AAA team. And then as players get moved down each rung they'll be asked to stay and play for their mixed 16U team. Makes perfect sense, right?

SCIR (now Vengeance) South Pitt Lebo These are the only 09 AA options. SCIR beat the soon-to-be Tier 1 09 Icemen at Mid-Ams. All three of these are good options after the dust settles this week. 09 AA teams are disappearing. *Scratch Lebo. They have an 09 team but it won't be AA. **Another edit. Lebo 09 tryouts are over. Anyone know what happened there?

Their Tier 1 teams played THF, the Black Bear Tier 1 league. I don't think any Preds teams played AHF.

Yep. Mixed teams will have 70%-80% of the older birth year. I get the arguments for AA mixed teams. Some are valid. Organizations can stay "principled" all they want but those organizations will lose players to other organizations that offer BY AA teams. It's just the way it is.

09s made MidAms. They beat Blue Jackets and Vengeance, lost to Pens.

As has been the case in the past, they're not permitted to miss practice for JV games or practices. They can miss practice for a Varsity game unless it happens to be a practice that has been made mandatory leading up to a tournament or a big game for instance. I wouldn't say it's PIHL unfriendly, but it's certainly not the most friendly.

Particularly the Esmark skates. I wonder if they can pull this off. They need to be working the phones hard to start again from scratch. It won’t work if they just rely on some gravitational pull to get kids back in the door and overcome the lost momentum from last year. But at the same time it wouldn’t surprise me if they end up with the second best 09 team in the region when all is said and done.

Exactly. For a strong BY like 2009 the number should be three. Pittsburgh could have three top 40 teams. The six 09 AAA teams we’ll have next year is absolutely excessive. There will be more 09 AAA teams than 09 AA teams. Crazy.

This is surprising. One of the biggest Black Bear organizations won't have a team to play in their AHF 15U AA division? What percentage mix would you guess for the 08s and 09s that make that 16U AA team? 70% 2008's and 30% 2009's? Or even 80/20 split? The majority of 2009's that were on the Badgers 14U AA team this year will not stay if they don't make the 16U AA team. They just won't. Probably 10+ 2009 AA level kids will leave. That's my guess. This decision by Allegheny is going to re-stock Esmark. I'm sure they're already hitting the phones. I guess Black Bear doesn't care either way? They lose a 2009 AHF team and gain a 2009 THF team. $$$

If that number is right that is a lot. More than usual. Those kids absolutely would make a Tier 2 15U team. But next season those players will now be on a comparatively worse team as it relates to their skill that has had a year to develop.

What makes sense has very little to do with it. The top tournaments/showcases and increasingly more leagues (AHF) all have 15U divisions. And parents have spoken with their wallets. The best players want to, and currently do play on birth year teams. It’s just reality. PAHL is too principled (old school) to understand this.

Well there will be six Tier 1 09 teams next season. Compared with four this season. Esmark is really going to have to work some magic to put together a good team. We'll see. Tier 1 will be a bit watered down I think. PPE may start to bring in non-locals and that always shakes things up. And a few of the top top kids will look at prep schools. For Tier II, the better 09 AA players are going to gravitate towards the teams that are putting together a 15U team. Any 09 team that stays together will probably play A Major if they play in PAHL. Playing against older but less skilled kids than they are used to. I would guess that Allegheny and South Pitt will have 15U teams to match AHF 15U AA division. They don't have much choice but to play in that league. And I'm guessing those two teams will not be playing PAHL and then just schedule a lot of independent games. Those two teams will probably pick up a lot of PAHL AA kids from other organizations that are putting together 16U mixed teams. Kids from Foxes 09 and North Pitt 09 will probably seek out other 09 teams since they won't have a birth year team option anymore. I think SCIR is the only 09 team that will try and compete in 16U AA PAHL. Preds will no longer have an 09 AA team so those kids will look around to find an 09 team. I'm not sure about Lebo, but if they keep their 09 team there is no way they can play AA next year.

They're kind of stuck in the middle. They won AHF and also beat many AAA teams over the course of the season. It makes sense they are moving to Tier 1. Black Bear owns the rink so they are forced to play either 15U AA AHF or 15U AAA THF. They will fit much better in the Tier 1 league. If they weren't attached to Black Bear, they could play 16U AA PAHL next year but would likely be the best team even though they are a year younger than most teams. The problem is that they will be the weakest 09 Tier 1 team in the area, but Tier 1 is still probably the best choice for them.

Too late at that point, right? Teams are picked already. I'm sure a kid or two moves and forks over thousands in committment fees, but not many.

I'm sure that's true but you can't tell much by these informal pre-tryout secret skates, especially when the timing of many of these skates violates USA hockey rules.

Yep. PAHL knows it's just a matter of time before Black Bear and the AHF completely take over in Western PA. It's evil genius by Black Bear... buy all the rinks in an area, raise the cost of ice every single year by shocking amounts, and then create a monopoly on youth hockey league play to purchase all the ice. Allegheny, South Pitt, Icemen, Preds, Esmark are already in deep with Black Bear and their leagues. That's just the beginning. In many ways PAHL has itself to blame but that doesn't make it any better.

Many of the top Icemen teams play in the THF with the Preds and Esmark as the other western PA teams in that Tier 1 Black Bear league.

This is exactly right. A lot of the better teams in the AHF and THF are the western PA team. But it's probably just a matter of time until AHF has entire "west" divisions in Pittsburgh.

You're right about coaches nominating their kids. That's a problem. I've seen some misses for sure, but overall MidAm tryouts have done a decent job identifying the right kids. We've all seen some yellow buckets not advancing and kids from lesser teams advancing. The system is not perfect, but it's certainly not a joke. And parents that convey that message and mindset to their kids have already set them up for failure.

Good ideas.

The end goal is to identify players to send to the national camp, right? So with that in mind if you were running things how would you improve the process?

Posted: https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/8307898-boys-14-2010-tryouts

Have Mid-Am dev camp tryout invites been sent?